Wednesday, 17 December 2008

As a follow-up to the previous article on the Passenger Name Record, I would like to point to the recent publication of a scientific article in the Journal of European Integration.

The article written by Javier Argomaniz in Volume 31, Issue 1 (2009), of the journal, is titled:

When the EU is the 'Norm-taker': The Passenger Name Records Agreement and the EU's Internalization of US Border Security Norms

and is basically saying that the EU has imported the legal norms related to the creation of a Passanger Name Record (PNR) from the United States, which have been developed from November 2001 in the USA.

In the conclusions, Argomaniz summarises the process like this:

"[T]he process of internalization of border security norms present in the PNR agreement is constituted by three subsequent stages: first, an initial stage of US unilateral norm imposition, followed by rule compliance articulated as US–EU negotiations characterized by bargaining and cost–benefit calculations from both actors, and, finally, a parallel process of policy socialization by EU executive bodies, in particular the European Commission, contested by other European actors. Resistance to norm internalization within the Union has originated mainly from data protection officers and MEPs concerned about data protection and democratic accountability shortcomings"